


Year of the lobo

by Estelle (Fielding)



Series: B99 Season 7 Countdown Project [23]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Episode: s06e15 Return of the King, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:41:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22371964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fielding/pseuds/Estelle
Summary: “I just wanted you to know that I miss you.” “Well, I miss you too, dude.”Jake and Gina meet up to work on their screenplay – and to figure out some stuff. Takes place after Return of the King.
Relationships: Gina Linetti & Jake Peralta
Series: B99 Season 7 Countdown Project [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1588849
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	Year of the lobo

**Author's Note:**

> Story No. 23 of my Season 7 Countdown Project. Thank you to weshallmeetagain for the prompt!

Jake looks out at the Williamsburg Bridge as he stretches, cocking his head to one side and then the other to work out the kinks in his neck. He’s been sitting on the floor in Gina’s living room all afternoon, hunched over a MacBook at her coffee table. The sky’s gone all pink and purple and he had no idea it had gotten so late.

“I should probably get going,” he says to the window, then turns to glance at Gina over his shoulder. She’s leaning back on the sofa, watching him. “What?”

“You should stay for dinner,” she says.

Jake shoots her a small smile. “Linguine?”

“I’ll have Janelle cook us up something special.”

“I thought you fired Janelle?”

Gina shrugs. “It’s hard to find good help, dude.”

The afternoon’s been so nice, like a long callback to another life that he’d almost forgotten about, so Jake agrees to stay for dinner (anyway, Amy’s working all night). Gina doesn’t actually make Janelle cook, but she does make her do all the ordering online. “I can’t fit any more apps on my phone, Jake. If it’s not social, it’s not worth the real estate,” Gina says.

She’d been the one to initiate this friend-date (Terry’s words), because, and Jake isn’t too proud to admit it, he needed her to make the first move, after everything. He hadn’t actually expected her to text so soon – they only saw each last a month ago, she’s only been out of the sling for a week – and when her name showed up on his screen he’d felt a jolt of betrayal before anything else. He’s not mad at her exactly. Just- look, he’s got abandonment issues. Everyone knows this about him.

“Let’s work on the script,” she’d texted him, and it had taken Jake a moment to remember.

Then: “The Queen of Tears: Battle for the Amulet of Destiny?”

“Part 1!” she’d texted back. “Saturday. My place. Brunch.”

He’d sent her a fried egg emoji and a thumb’s up.

Gina moved into the penthouse in Williamsburg a few months ago and Jake still can’t get over how weirdly elegant it is – everything’s shiny and new-looking and clean and huge. She and Milton split when Iggy was less than a year, and so it’s just Gina and the kid there most of the time. Jake thinks he’d feel lonely with all this space, but then, he can’t even imagine not sharing a home with Amy.

They got a little tipsy on mimosas first, and then kept drinking through the afternoon as they bounced ideas for their movie back and forth, but mostly caught one another up on the past year. Jake told her that he saw a therapist for a few sessions, learned some things about himself that he’s since locked back up in a box in his brain. Gina approved. He said that he and Amy were thinking about kids, thinking about trying, and she approved of that too.

“Iggy’s finally walking,” Gina says, as they stare out the window at the last smudges of sunset.

They’re both on the couch, lounging shoulder to shoulder even though it’s a monster piece of furniture; Gina has a blanket she calls Wolfie 2 tucked over her lap and her legs curled up under her.

“She took her sweet-ass time,” Gina goes on, “but she started talking at, like, six months, so she knows what’s important.”

“But how’s her dance?” Jake says.

Gina pulls a face. “It’s not good.”

Jake puts his socked feet up on the coffee table, beside the laptop, and wriggles his toes. He can’t remember the last time they hung out, just the two of them. It was before her goodbye party. Maybe when they’d dressed up and crashed the Manhattan Club. He sits up a little and grabs his beer, some fancy microbrew he’s never heard of but damnit, it’s delicious.

Gina pokes him in the butt with her foot and he startles, clanks the bottle against his teeth and dribbles a little beer down his chin.

“Gina!”

“Sorry, bud.” She’s laughing though and not sorry at all. She pokes him again, with both feet this time. “What’s up with you?”

“What’s up with me? You almost made me spill craft beer on my shirt,” Jake says, wiping away a few drops. “Amy got me this shirt for my birthday.”

“No, I mean other than that. You’re being weird.”

Jake glances at her quick then turns back to the beer, studying the label. It’s got a giant crab on it for some reason, and he really doesn’t like crabs. Their legs are creepy.

“I’m not.”

“You are,” she says. “Is it that stuff from before? Because I hurt your feelings?”

“What? No.” Jake slouches back into the sofa and doesn’t look at her. “No.”

He feels more than hears Gina sigh beside him. “Right. Okay, so. I was thinking about all that, and you know you’re my brother-”

“I know,” Jake says, tilting his head back to stare at her vaulted ceiling. “You’re like a sister to me too, Gines.”

“No, listen. Not like-a,” Gina says. “You’re my brother, bro. You’re family. And not like, found-family, work-family, whatever. Just. Family-family.”

He side-glances at her, feeling suddenly, unsettlingly vulnerable. “I am?”

“Yeah. I thought you knew that.”

“I-” Jake pauses and swallows hard. “I did. I guess. Maybe. And you know- samesies. I mean, I guess I have a few sisters but like, you’re the one that counts.”

“Oh I know,” Gina says. “Obviously. But here’s the thing, families take each other for granted. That’s just, what we do.”

“I don’t think that’s right-”

“Shut up, it is,” Gina says. “Anyway, what I mean is, if I didn’t call or text or whatever, if we went a few months without seeing each other, it’s just because I always knew you were there. It has nothing to do with losing touch or drifting apart. You and me, we’re family. We’re not going anywhere.”

Jake blinks up at the ceiling as something heavy and warm settles over his chest. He should probably say something, tell her he loves her and he feels the same and that it’s true, he’s not going anywhere, not ever.

But apparently Gina doesn’t even need to hear it. She’s got that Gina-confidence, that Gina-strength. And Gina always does know best.

So he says, “Thanks, Gina,” and lets his head fall onto her shoulder. 

Dinner arrives not long after, and they start on another six pack of craft beer, and Milton texts to say that Iggy’s going to spend the night at his place if that’s okay with Gina, and Jake texts Amy to say he’s going to be home a little later than he’d planned.

“You want to work on the script some more?” Gina says, nudging the MacBook with a toe. “We still haven’t beat the Queen of Tears.”

“Nah, we’ve got the Queen of Tears locked up,” Jake says, and Gina gives him the smile that means she thinks he’s the cheesiest and she loves it. “Anyway, I hate to say it but I think our script might be bad.”

“Oh, it’s real bad,” Gina says.

“We are not good writers.”

“It’s a good thing we’re so good-looking, bro.”

Jake taps his beer against hers. “Cheers to that, sis.”

**Author's Note:**

> *Title is from Jose & Mark (Bash Brothers). This may be the first title that I think doesn’t quite work, but I couldn’t resist using a “lobo” lyric for Gina. (Lobo is wolf.)
> 
> *The specific prompt was a request for Jake and/or Gina referring to each other as brother or sister for the first time. There were lots of opportunities for this, of course. But I always felt like they had a bit more to work out at the end of Return of the King.


End file.
